e-mail from "Next Online Shopping" requesting c. card details: any risks?.

I received the following e-mail from Next Online Shopping.

Has anybody else ever had to supply this information having ordered online?

I am very reluctant to send a visa statement with my last 4 digits of my card on it through the postal system.

Surely ordering by Visa cannot be this complicated?

I am told that my order will be cancelled if I do not supply this information.

Dear

With regards to your recent order, unfortunately this has been delayed.

On occasion we require additional information to verify that the credit card used is registered to the name and address of the account holder. This is to protect your card security.

To ensure that we are able to provide the best possible service and to enable us to fulfil your order, please forward the requested identification below as soon as possible.

If you have any queries regarding this request please contact us on freephone1800 805 393 or via email to discuss your order further.

If we do not hear from you within 5 days, your order will be automatically cancelled.

The information required will generally be shown in the top section of your bank or credit card statement of the card you intend to pay with.

Please forward the part of your statement that shows the following information:

The name and address of the card holder
The bank or credit card company letterhead or logo
The last four digits of the card number
The date of the statement (which must be within the last 3 months)

All other information should be obscured as this is unnecessary for our checks.

Once received this card will be your nominated card for use on your Next Directory account.

Please send to:
AIT Department Next Directory,
PO BOX 3000,
Sheffield. S97 3EU

Alternatively, you may wish to fax this to us on 00441162844207, or scan and send by reply email.

Yours sincerely
AIT Department
Next Directory

Re: Next Online Shopping

I've seen this asked for before alright, but very rarely, and it's somewhat surprising to see Next asking for it-you should certainly double check directly with Next if possible.

You could also try doing nothing and see if in fact your order doesn't arrive.

Re: Next Online Shopping

CCOVICH said:

I've seen this asked for before alright, but very rarely, and it's somewhat surprising to see Next asking for it-you should certainly double check directly with Next if possible.

You could also try doing nothing and see if in fact your order doesn't arrive.

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Have rang Next in Blanchardstown and Manageress thought it very strange too and suggested I ring the number back and speak to somebody else which I did. However they transferred me back to the same guy I had been speaking to previously. I told him I was not happy to send these details and he said that that was the policy of the company and unfortunately the order would be cancelled if I did not send the details. He said I could fax or e-mail (having scanned the statement) to them as an alternative. I asked if other customers had indicated their reluctance to send details and he said they had and some had cancelled their orders. Basically is there any risk in me sending this information? Head is telling me know but New Year's Eve dress is telling me yes.

Re: Next Online Shopping

Don't bother calling one of their stores in Ireland-try and speak to someone who will be familair with the online ordering process.

Some more information here and here includng a 'Help' section with contact details.

There is always a risk in sending personal data, although the fact that they are only requesting the last 4 digits of your credit card account number makes it seem more genuine than would otherwise be the case.

Google may also throw some light on the whole thing......

Re: Next Online Shopping

i know someone who ordered some stuff too and got the same email. Ignoring it as seems like one of those fake bank emails. Try contacting the number on the original email or the website. think they are different to the one you got.

Re: Next Online Shopping

I was asked for all the details above, but it was in a phonecall, they want to see a statement with your address and the last four digits of the card, so blank off everything else and photo copy it.
my credit card had been used for fraud and I was unaware of it when I placed the order, so I was glad they were cautious. in the end I just placed an order in one of their stores and picked it up as we were going through a house move and it would have taken too long to get a statement with the new address.

Re: Next Online Shopping

Hi had this before from next.... My credit card billing address was different to the delivery address I wanted to use. Phone the customer services get it from their website, not the number quoted on the Email received (just in case it is bogus). Discuss the matter and state your issue with this type of email and its implications. I cancelled my order and just went in person to next in Blanchardstown retail park (large store).

Re: Next Online Shopping

It's actually a random request from your card issuer. They do these randomly for fraud protection and yours happened to hapeen during an online transaction. Basically what happens is that when your card is run through the terminal asks them for more information. If it happens in a shop you would be asked for photo id. A lot of the time the cashier has never seen it before and can embarrass a customer saying the card was declined, as they are asked to ring a number and then verifiy the customers id.

If it happens in a shop they can run it through again and usually it goes through without requesting these details. So maybe if you cancel your order and re-do it, it would go through without needing the verification!


On a further note, some card issuers, usually the non-Irish ones I believe like Capital One and MBNA, will let you opt out of this "at your own risk." But things have tightened in the last couple of years and I'm no longer in the industry, so don't quote me there!

Good luck!

Re: Next Online Shopping

Tks folks for all your posts. Again, just to pose the question, are there any risk implications of sending such information either via e-mail or post?

Re: Next Online Shopping

yes, there is always a risk with info sharing. However you can contact Next and confirm to whom and where you are sending the info. As I said in my previous post I just let the order cancel and felt this was too much hassle.

However, the last four digits are always on your shop till receipts anyway... Your address is probably in your green bin on all that junk you dont open etc.

Re: Next Online Shopping

This request is not from the bank or card issuer but from the Next Directory fraud department directly. They need to confirm that it is definately your card being used (and not someone else using your card). It is secure to send the card statement to the fax number as according to their staff, this is in a secure managers office. Emailing is obviously less secure however as long as you obscure the info they tell you to it cant really pose a security problem. Posting takes ages and your order will probably get cancelled by the time they receive it!

Really Next Directory should pull their finger out and have a way for the credit card address be verified at the time of ordering like all other internet companies but I reckon they rushed to get the service running or dont fancy the costs involved with conducting a manual card verification (of which is available) so therefore opted to make the customer send proof that the card is theirs and registered to their address instead.

Calling the number in the email, the number on the nextdirectory.ie website or even the UK website will all lead you back to the same team in the UK who sent the email in the first place.

In my opinion the whole thing is a complete waste of time when you consider on-line shopping is meant to be hastle free but if you want the stuff then you will have to send the info.

Re: Next Online Shopping

I'm not surprised to hear this about Next.

I tried to order curtains over the phone with my card and they said they don't take card details over the phone in case the phone call being listened to (!) and I would have to go to the store to pay at the desk.
Which kind of defeats the advantage of having an online ordering service!

Most things can be paid for over the phone, I just ordered MAC makeup on the phone with my laser card and they're going to post it to me.

They just seem to be very strict but I would not under any circumstances give out info if I wasn't happy about it.
Just go to the store if theres one near you.

Re: Next Online Shopping

In my opinion the whole thing is a complete waste of time when you consider on-line shopping is meant to be hastle free

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Couldn't agree more, you get the catalogue (which one has to pay 3 euro for), try to order online, about 70% or more of the stuff in the catalogue is not available to buy online, when I called up a shop to order goods from the catalogue and give my CC details I was advised that I could not order over the phone that I had to call into the shop give the order, they will get the order in to the shop and then I go collect it ! I was looking for some furniture plus curtains, rugs, lights etc, but they will only deliver the furniture, they won't deliver the whole order as one to your home.

Also, they took more stuff from their catalogue off the website to add their Christmas stuff.

IMO the stuff is overpriced and not the best anyhow, I saw cushions in Heatons for 12 euro, the exact, and I mean exact, same ones in Next catalogue for 25 euro, pays to shop around.

ci1 -

I tried to order curtains over the phone with my card and they said they don't take card details over the phone in case the phone call being listened to (!) and I would have to go to the store to pay at the desk.

Click to expand...

Most things can be paid for over the phone, I just ordered MAC makeup on the phone with my laser card and they're going to post it to me

Click to expand...

I'm confused - will they take card details over the phone at some branches ??

Next Online Shopping

Not that I know of.

I called Blanch & Scotch Hall to order curtains that were not in stock and they said they have to be paid for on order, so I said fine I have my card details and was told no, don't take payments over the phone you have to come to the store.

Really silly I think!!!

Re: Next Online Shopping

Interesting thread, I found this on the 'search' function as I have had the exact same thing happen me. I bought some clothes online with my credit card and got an email requesting the same details. It seemed really odd to me and I wrote back to say so. I also said I felt very concerned about sending such personal details over by fax/email because of the risk of it falling into the wrong hands etc. So they wrote back to me and asked me to give them the phone no. of my bank/credit card company and that they would ring them to verify my details.

I didnt' see the harm in that so I gave them the phone no. Today they emailed me to say that it was fine and would process my order...

I thought this was strange, like why would they ask me for a copy of my statement and a copy of my credit card and a copy of my drivers license / passport, when all they could have done in the first place was ask for the credit card suppliers phone no??

Re: Next Online Shopping

Over a year on from the previous posts my wife just got an email that her order was cancelled, no excat details why but apparently this had to do with protection of security. Reading these posts I assume it might have to do with the address on the credit card not being exactly the same as in the order.

We placed orders with nextdirectory since they started online selling about 2 years ago but it was never plain sailing. To start with you could order only for shop delivery. Now they allow you 1 delivery address (that is one only) and if you want to change it you have to call. Email address and password can be changed online though (??).

I recently wanted something delivered to my office address and it was easier to set up a new accont than trying to call them (I don't want to wait ages on the phone). I wonder if that order will arrive - in this case the delivery address certainly doesn't match the credit card billing address.

But even setting up the account wasn't plain sailing. They try to do some automatic address matching as you would be used to from UK sites where it works well due to the post code system - but that's not Ireland. After several attempts of entering my address and the system changing it to something wrong I finally foud an option for free-from entry.

A little bit I think that the tech guys at Next neither look at existing online ordering systems (how nice would it be if they would just copy Amazon) but develop from scratch fixing one problem as they encounter it and - probably main source of the problem: the developers are in the UK and have no clue of the mail system in Ireland, hence they try to shoehorn Irish addresses into their system (probably trying to adapt an existing UK system for Ireland - you might have guessed it by now: I am a developer myself and have a fair idea about how such systems get developed..)

The problem with Ireland is that the addresses just don't fit that easily. Where I live are not only no postcodes but not even street names or house numbers. And living at the border of two counties we have 2 official addresses depending whether it is a planning or legal matter (in which case the right county has to be on it) or if you just want to get mail delivered (the official mail address is for the other county). And then you might vary it by putting the townland on it or not and even the official name of the area has two or three different spellings depending on which resource you use...

On a whole I just think their ordering system really sucks - in many ways. I just don't understand why they don't want to make it easier to use in their own interest....?

Well I received my order at my work address, so just matching delivery addresses to credit card addresses didn't seem to be the issue. My speculations now are that maybe it has something to do with the fact that my wife and I have a shared credit card, meaning there are two actual cards with differents CVV numbers but they have the same credit card number and maybe there was an issue with the fact that the same number appeared twice now in their system - who knows. I don't have the time to try calling them and find out.

However, a few days ago I got a NOTICE OF VARIATION OF YOUR NEXT DIRECTORY CREDIT AGREEMENT via email from Next Directory despite the fact that I never arranged any credit with them ever. And promptly two days later I got another email telling me that this email was sent out in error (apparently to all users who have an account, at least I got it for both my accounts).

Whatever they are doing I am by now seriously weary of their online services. I don't think it is fishy but strange and incompetent in more ways than I like.

I recieved this email from Next also- i contacted them directly as i thought it was a scam - to say them were rude and condesending on the phone was understatement. They told them this is entirely normal practice and if i didnt like it -tough. I contacted customer service with my bank to ask what they thought and they advised me not to send details through the post in this manner. I spoke to a branch Manager in Dundrum and she siad that she has recieved loads of complaints about the on line service which she has passed on however the on -line is operated separately from the branch network . Since then I have ordered from the directory through the branches several times now and have found it very convenient - they give you a date to collect it and and to date have never had any problems .

received something similar from US site for Abercrombie first time I ordered from them. Distrusting the source of the email I contacted them - not using their phone number on the email though. I traced their headquarters phone number, phoned it and explained the situ. They couldn't have been more helpful and so apologetic for inconvenience, etc, etc. The whole customer service experience this side of the world is so pathetic. Their explanation at the time was that the credit card companies just do it randomly.